A powerful undersea earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Russia, prompting tsunami advisories across the West Coast, Alaska, and the Pacific. The quake's aftershocks affected a wide region, with advisories issued in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and California. Dave Snider from the National Tsunami Warning Center explained that tsunamis are a series of waves that can travel quickly across the ocean but slow down and rise near the coast. By Wednesday, California recorded tsunami waves of 4 feet, while Hawaii's waves reached 5.7 feet, with minimal damage reported and evacuation advisories beginning to lift.
"A tsunami is not just one wave. It's a series of powerful waves over a long period of time," Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, told the Associated Press.
Snider emphasized that tsunami waves can race across deep ocean water as fast as a jet airplane. But once they reach the coast, they slow down and rise in height, posing risks of flooding and property damage.
In this case, because of the Earth basically sending out these huge ripples of water across the ocean, they're going to be moving back and forth for quite a while," Snider explained.
By early Wednesday morning, the highest tsunami waves on California's shores were measured at 4 feet in Crescent City, while Hawaii's Kahului recorded waves topped 5.7 feet.
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